Several Minnesotans have taken me to task over my earlier dismissal
of the idea that this song could be about the Red River of the North.
Well, I take it back. I was too hasty. Carl Sandburg believed that
"Red River Valley" was based on James Kerrigan's "In the
Bright Mohawk Valley" (1896). Folklorist Edith Fowke states that
the song was known in several Canadian provinces before 1896.
Either would suggest a northern origin; if the song indeed comes from
Canada, it probably is about the Red River of the North.